BY HNERY UMORU AND  OSCARLINE ONWUEMENYI
We didn’t recommend it -Uwais
Details of how the planned single term of office for the President and governors emerged yesterday. The idea was recommended for the Federal Government by a coalition of political parties which submitted a report in May 2008.

Though President Goodluck Jonathan alluded to the existence of a report to that effect when he addressed the 56th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday in Abuja, he did not give the details of the composition of the committee.

But a report of the Inter-Party Consultative Committee on Electoral Reform set up by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and headed by the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, obtained in Abuja  indicated that four political parties were represented on the Committee. In all, the committee had 29 members drawn from the four parties and spread across the nation’s six geo-political zones.

Meanwhile,  a former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mohammed Uwais yesterday backed out of calls by the Presidency for a single tenure option for political offices holders, insisting that any such move was purely for political reasons.

President Goodluck Jonathan had inferred during his defence of the proposed Bill on a one term option for the executive office holders, at a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party, that the idea came as a resolution of an inter-party body prepared for the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that while 70 percent of the recommendations of the Inter-Party Consultative Committee were adopted by the much publicized Uwais Report on electoral Reforms, which later worked on the report, the recommendation on single tenure was shelved because the health of the late President Yar’Adua did not allow him to undertake the needed consultations ahead of the completion of work by the Uwais Panel.

Sources also confirmed in Abuja that as part of efforts by the late Yar’Adua to engineer electoral reforms in 2008, he actually set up four committees to review the nation’s electoral system.

The late President was said to have set up committees of Traditional Rulers, governors’ Committee, Law enforcement Committee and Inter-Party Committee all with a view to analysing the trends in the nation’s electoral system. It was however confirmed that only the Inter-Party Consultative Committee headed by Jonathan saw the light of the day and produced reports which laid the foundation for the Uwais Panel on Electoral Reforms.

A preamble to the report indicates that President Yar’Adua established the Inter-Party Committee as a fallout of the  Interactive Session on Electoral Processes which he convened with  governors, National Assembly, the political parties and the security agencies on January 16, 2008.

“The five leading political parties-Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP), Progressive Peoples Alliance(PPA), All Progressives Grand Alliance(APGA) and the Action Congress(AC) were invited to nominate7 members each.

In his invitation to the parties, His Excellency the Vice President advised that the 7 nominees of each of the leading parties, should include the National Chairman and one member from each of the 6 geo-political zones,” the report stated.
At the end of its meetings, the committee said in its report submitted in May 2008 that it identified 24 key factors militating against credible elections in Nigeria. Some of the factors include incumbency factor, independence of the electoral body, imposition of candidates, god-fatherism, thuggery role of security agencies as well as the role of state electoral bodies among others.

The committee recommended  the adoption of a seven year single tenure for the President, six year single tenure for governors and three year  tenure for local government chairmen among the nine recommendations it submitted to government.

Other key recommendations include the need to ensure that electoral bodies are financially independent, allowing ceilings for donations to support elections, adoption of Open ballot system for all elections, ensuring a six months window between elections and assumption of office to ensure that litigations are resolved, de-registration of political parties that fail to get up to 2.5 percent of seats in the National Assembly, establishment of electoral offences Commission, rotation of offices at state and federal levels to be a constitutional matter and adoption of proportional representation.

The report of the committee was subsequently submitted to the Uwais Panel of electoral reforms which adopted 70 percent of the recommendations, it was learnt. One of the recommendation already passed by the National Assembly is the financial autonomy granted the electoral body and the inclusion of power to deregister parties in the electoral law.

“The decision to tinker with tenure of office of governors and the President starting from 2015 therefore has a long history,” a source said, adding that one of the issues deliberated upon was the fact that the Asian Tigers of today were able to achieve greatness because of stability in their polity.
A source said that President Jonathan has decided to leave a strong political legacy for Nigeria and that one of the key issues already identified as causing tension in the polity is the incumbency factor, which can be resolved through a single tenure for the President and governors.

Those who served in the 29 member board include Dr. Jonathan, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, chairman of ANPP, Senator Mohammed Aruwa(ANPP North West), Chief Kunle Ogunade, ANPP South West, Chief Ugo Sam Okpara(ANPP, South East, Khaleel Bolaji, ANPP North Central Senator A.A. Ibrahim, ANP, North East, and Mr. J. Okongor, ANPP South South.

Those who represented APGA include Chief Chekwas Okorie, Abdullahi Mohammed,Barrister Abubakar Galadima,Barrister Bello Umar, Prince ANC Akanegbu, Chief Benji I Duru and Benson Agada, while former Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali initially led the PDP delegation, he was replaced by  Price Vincent Ogbulafor when the latter assumed office. The new PDP team also included Dr, Danladi Sankara and Alhaji Abubakar Baraje. Others from the PDP include, Senator Paul Wampana, Senmator Yinka Omilani,Dr. Bello Mohammed,Abubakar MagajiNze Fidelis Ochichukwu, and Chief G.U. Ake. From the PPA came the former Chairman, Chief Clement Ebri, Chief Emma Omokwe,Hajiya Mariam Ibrahim Baba,Baba Adi,Chief Samson Akiga, Chief Mrs, Remi Adiuku- Bakare and AVM Anthony Okpere(rtd).

However, Uwais said government had ignored some very important recommendations by the Committee on Electoral Reform, especially with regard to the setting up of an Electoral Offences Commission to check perpetrators of electoral violence in the country.

Uwais, who spoke on Friday in an interview at the background of the media briefing on the Lesson Sharing on Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Democratic Governance for Development (DGD) Partners Support on the 2011 Elections, organized by the Alliance for Credible Elections, in Abuja, noted that the success of the last elections was no reason for stakeholders to rest on their oars but that a lot of work was still needed before the nation could attain perfect election.

Uwais further described as political the call for a single-term tenure system, pointing out that the report of his Committee had made no such recommendation to government.

“It is only political, and has nothing with electoral reform. It is not recommendation of our Commission,” he stressed.
“There are quite a number of very important recommendations in the report we made which did not receive fair attention. One of them is our recommendation on the setting up of an Electoral Offences Commission. We have observed that our elections are always accompanied by violence, whether before the elections or after. What has happened during and after the conduct of the last elections was really sad.”

On the issue of grants to political parties, he stressed that the constitution prescribes that political parties should receive grants as well as finance during elections. “Our recommendation is that political parties should receive grants, but it is not just any political party that can qualify for such a grant. It is to be based on the performance of the party during the election.

“However, the National Assembly in its wisdom said no grants whatsoever. Ideally parties should finance their own campaigns, but we looked at other countries like France and Germany that fund their political parties, before we came up with that recommendation,” he added.

He further noted that the call for a two-party system as has been advocated by some groups would be unconstitutional, given that the constitution has given citizens the right to form associations and belong to different groups.

“You cannot have a two-party system in Nigeria because it will go against our obligations to a lot of international conventions and charters Nigeria has signed unto. Such international organizations like ECOWAS and the United Nations have

Uwais further observed that the report contained information required for attaining a perfect electoral system, adding that “special attention must be paid to this report if the nation must do better in the conduct of democratic elections in the future.”